~100 people interviewed
NPR Embedded reporters interviewed close to 100 people over more than a year while investigating Antonio Mays Jr.'s death.
Snapshot · Up First from NPR
How an anti-police violence protest ended in a teen’s death
Explore episode
Jun 14, 2026
Where this was said
Antonio Mays Sr. Speaks: 'He Went to Take a Stand'
At 7:33 · chapter starts 7:10
After the lawsuit was filed, reporters Brownstone and James began their investigation in earnest, conducting nearly 100 interviews and reviewing never-before-public evidence over more than a year. They quickly ran into what they would come to call a circle of silence: protesters, police, and city officials all refusing to engage meaningfully. They describe their central finding as a disturbing pattern — when the people in charge and the people demanding change both decide self-protection matters more than accountability, justice for the victim disappears. Will James frames their work as a probe into what happens when institutions and movements fail their most basic responsibilities. Their first interviewee is the father at the center of it all: Antonio Mays Sr.
Who Was Antonio Mays Jr.? A Father Shows the Bookshelves
Antonio Jr. carried thick R.A. Salvatore fantasy novels in his pocket to work at his father's BBQ stand. He studied julienne knife cuts and helped sell handcrafted sauce at farmers markets. His father raised him on Black history — and that education, Antonio Sr. now agonizes, may have set him on the road to Seattle.
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